a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Jazz Draft Odds and Ends: Day After

Our four most recent rooks sure do like their round numbers. That’s now 20, 40, 0, and 10 in the past 12 months.

Solve the math problem to piece together the Jazz’s draft board
** Jazz had Walker, Jimmer and Knight higher than Burks (KOC; KALL); Burks was higher than Leonard. (Ty; KFAN)
** Burks was in the Jazz’s top ten (KOC; KFAN); with the 12th pick, “it got down to really two players, and the other player actually played in the same conference in the Mountain West but I don’t want to mention names.” (KOC; KALL)
** Jazz had Kanter in its top three. (KOC; KALL)
** [Did you guys have Kanter as the top prospect on your value board?] Well, I can’t say that, but yes. (Hornacek; KALL)
** [Hornacek told us earlier you had Kanter number one on your value board. Is that accurate?] That’s not quite accurate. We had him 1 or 1a. (KOC; KALL)

** Jimmer (en route to Sacramento) and Miss America were also on Kanter and Burks’ flight to SLC. (FOX)

Kanter upon landing in SLC
** I’m really excited, because I’m home. (FOX)
** I feel so jazzy! I feel so jazzy! (FOX)

** Kanter is immensely likeable. You can’t not like him. He’s got Memo’s likeability with a touch of Jokey Smurf. So basically, personality-wise, he’s a combination of Memo and Fes. ;) Also, I was thinking about how he’d hang out with Memo when he moves to SLC and then as usual my mind digressed…in short, I did the math and his age difference with Memo is the same as his age difference with Memo’s 4-year old. Haha.

** Both Enes and Alec said that they got texts from Devin Harris and Gordon Hayward the night of the draft, welcoming them to the Jazz.

** Check out Alec Burks in the pic above. Stylin’.

Kanter on Memo
** Right now I feel so comfortable because I came here. I have family [Memo] here. (nba)
** First of all, I knew Jazz when I was little, when I was 15, 16, 17 [so 2-3 years ago lol] because of Memo. I follow him, I watched him when I was little. It was hard little bit because of time is different. I used to wake up every morning like 3, 4 in the morning just watch him, and I’m a Jazz fan because of him. (KFAN)

Message from Memo
I would like to welcome Enes to Salt Lake City and hope that he has a great career here. Same with Alec. It is not easy being drafted so high. It brings with it a lot of expectations and responsibilities. Enes is the highest drafted Turkish player in our basketball history. It won’t be easy with the Turkish media and newspapers following your every step. I know how that feels. Hedo knows how that feels. For long, long years the two of us tried to represent our country, our country’s basketball and our people the best way that we could…We have done our best and although we are not finished yet by any means, we are ready for greater things from the new generation of Turkish NBA players…Once again welcome Enes to Salt Lake City. Our home away from home. (memo13)

Enes Kanter: Unintentional Dirty Quote Magnet
** Randy Rigby: He loves to bang. He loves to put a body on some players and doesn’t mind having a body on him.
** Ty Corbin: Once I got a chance to go back to Chicago and work with him on the floor, and feel his body and see his size being down on the floor with him, I was completely, uh, surprised at how good and mature this kid was. (KFAN)
** KOC: [on Kanter playing for the Turkish national team this summer] It’s a pretty good idea to do it if we’re not in a situation where we can keep our hands on him…we’re gonna touch everybody that’s under contract that we’re allowed to touch between now and June 30th…we’re gonna be hands on with ‘em. (KFAN)

** KOC and his “no comment.” Devin Harris says “obviously” a lot. It was “definitely” with Ronnie Brewer and it’s “but again” with AK. Kanter starts 90% of his sentences with “First of all…” He can and will start three consecutive sentences with “First of all…” Burks, meanwhile, starts 90% of his sentences with “I feel like…”

What do you know about the Utah Jazz?
Burks: So much great tradition and history with Karl and John and Jeff. They did a lot for the city and the team, so I’m glad to be a part of the tradition…I was actually out here on Monday for a workout and I saw [Horny] and I got nervous a little bit, but he was a real cool dude, and I can’t wait to get to work with him. (nba)

Speaking of Karl and John…
** [We had Coach Calipari on a few days ago and he said you remind him of Karl Malone. How does that make you feel?] Kanter: He call me Turkish Karl Malone. It’s great because Karl Malone was a great basketball player and he was from Utah Jazz [me: and nowhere else], so I feel so special. He was a great player…I’m just so happy to hear it. (KALL)
** From the Trib several weeks ago:

Knight held a 4.3 grade-point average during high school and was praised by Wildcats coach John Calipari, who highlighted Knight’s work ethic and compared him to Jazz legend John Stockton.

What the heck? The Jazz had the opportunity to draft the new Stockton and Malone (who were from the same team so the chemistry was already built-in) and they didn’t? Heads need to roll!!! /somewhat sarcastic

Are Kanter and Burks NBA-ready?
Ty: I think so. (KFAN)
KOC: No, I would say not. They’re both 19. If you want to have somebody NBA ready, you look at somebody that’s played four years in college. (KFAN)

KOC is an eager beaver
Greg Miller: I have to be careful what I say, because Kevin is so eager to do what he thinks my mom and I want, that if I even hint some way, I can throw him off his game plan. So I have to be very judicious in what I say and when I say it so that we avoid that. (KFAN)

Random observation that everyone can probably do without
Just like all of our Euros (AK, Fes, Memo, and even Tomic), Kanter shaves his ‘pits.

More UDQM
KOC: We banged around for the whole week, saying who’s sixth and who’s eighth? Because when we have those five minutes, we’re not gonna go, “[sound I can’t spell out], let’s take 8 because I like him better.” (KFAN)

Off-topic: The Amazing Race
There arerumorsthat Karl Malone is going to be on the next season of “The Amazing Race.” If this is true, CBS should be doing EVERYTHING in its power to get John and Nada Stockton on board either to compete against Karl and Kay, or form a 4-man team with Karl and Kay. You can’t tell me even casual NBA fans wouldn’t tune in for this. If this were to happen, I would SO happily give up the NBA season of greedy, greedy players and greedy, greedy owners and greedy, greedy Stern and his cronies.

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I am so already in love with Kanter!! Memo+Fes=Pure JOY!!! I like happy positive and upbeat.

It may just be the day, or the fact that it rained buckets all day, but I am feeling very optimistic. Look how good KOC did with last years picks; I LOVE GoGo HayHay and Jeremy. Things are looking up for us…

Now I just have to keep taking deep breaths and have faith; I am so worried about AK and Fes and others.